Richard Wilen, owner of Hayhurst Valley Organic Nursery, showed his enthusiasm and appreciation Saturday that the downtown Lane County Farmers’ Market was again open for business.
“Thanks for coming to the market!” Wilen said, as customers left his booth that offered lettuce and other leafy greens. He was one of many vendors who helped kick off the market’s 22nd season.
The Farmers’ Market, located across from the Saturday Market at Eighth Avenue and Oak Street, runs every year from the first Saturday in April until the second Saturday in November. It attracts an average of 40 vendors every Saturday, selling various kinds of produce, plants, flowers, bakery products and other things made from items grown on their farms, said Noa O’Hare, market director.
“Anything you grow you can sell — that’s legal,” O’Hare said.
The Farmers’ Market started as part of the Saturday Market with only a few Farmer’s, but separated from them in 1987, O’Hare said.
The Saturday Market “run their own events and we are our own unit, which is nice because Farmers have different needs,” O’Hare said. “We try to serve as many people as we can and tend to service the smallest agriculture unit out there.”
Since its separation from the Saturday Market, the Farmers’ Market has “grown fantastically,” with 150 vendors participating each year, O’Hare said. Bill Booth, co-owner of Horton Road Organics, is one such vendor and said he looks forward to the market every year.
“Farmers’ Market is the reason we farm,” Booth said. “We love to come down here and see our customers. Especially on the first day of market, it’s like we haven’t seen them all winter and it’s like a homecoming. It’s really nice.”
Wilen agreed, saying the Farmers’ Market can be a personalized experience.
“We really like to remember people’s names,” Wilen said. “Being on the farm all week you get kind of isolated and then you get to come down here and be social. It’s a lot of fun.”
People regularly buy their produce at the Farmers’ Market because it gives customers a chance to know exactly who the providers of their food are and talk to them, Wilen said.
“Sometimes produce can be expensive, but at the same time [people] need to be aware of what it takes to put food on the table,” Wilen said. “It’s good for them to come down and talk to people and see what farmers have to say.”
O’Hare agreed.
“Here the grower is the seller,” he said. “Globalization has removed a lot of the mom-and-pop stores, and it’s really hard to get a sense of community in the supermarkets. Here you can meet friends and have a good time.”
In addition to providing a sense of community to its customers, the Farmers’ Market tries to schedule regular events to promote itself, O’Hare said. The events include a Mother’s Day celebration, Berry Days in July, and participating in the Eugene Celebration held in September.
They also participate in a Department of Agriculture program called WIC, or Women, Infants and Children. The WIC program is set up to help mothers with children under the age of 5 connect with farmers who are selling fresh produce that tend to be more nutritious than what you might find in stores, O’Hare said. Each mother who qualifies for the program receives a coupon book with 10 $2 coupons that they can use at any vendor.
“The idea is they get a little bit of money to buy nutrition for their families and they may become repeat customers and help the farmers,” O’Hare said. “It’s not a whole lot of money, but it’s really just trying to give them a jump start into better nutrition.”
But it is not just the programs and sense of community that brings people down to the Farmers’ Market, it is the freshness of the products as well, Wilen said.
Tom Denison, owner of Denison Farms, agrees.
“There are some really talented growers here,” Denison said. “We have customers that act like they have been waiting all winter, holding their breath, waiting for something fresh to come back.”